Sangue Azzurro
it all revolves around the italian sighthounds
I would like to thank Chelsea James, the owner of "Raindance" Italian Greyhounds in the USA, who is the author of the study and tables below and who always consults the breed's intetests as well as the breeders' awareness. She creates the test results interpretation compilations and is an important voice in the community of breeders of those amazing dogs in the whole world.
Answer: NO. Indeed Bb to Bb could produce bb, but bb is insignificant.
Answer: NO, this is not neccessary. The idea that you need to only use dogs with "all capitals" is completely false. A dog that is cc and ee, would be fine to be bred to any combination EXCEPT dogs who carry both Aa and Dd (because it could result in offspring being AaDdEe or AaDdee which are 5x at risk), but matches who carry just Aa would be ok, and matches that carried just Dd would be ok (could produce Carriers, but not at risk).
Answer: You absolutely SHOULD breed your dog if your dog has other virtues to offer the breed, and you can find a complementary match that is AA and avoid matches that will yield at risk combinations of Aa Bb/bb Cc/cc OR Aa Dd Ee/ee.
Answer: If you breed your dog to a dog who is AA, the entire litter will result in 100% puppies who are Aa, therefore Carriers. Avoid matches that will yield at risk combinations of Aa Bb/bb Cc/cc OR Aa Dd Ee/ee.
Answer: NO. Having a dog who is all capitals is great/fine, but limiting yourself to combinations that only produce all capitals and removing dogs from your program who have anything but all capitals is reckless, irresponsible and damaging to the breed. You do not get a gold star for insisting on only breeding "all capitals."
Answer: Ideally, a great goal is reducing incidence over time of dogs carrying Aa, but we are not there yet. Dogs carrying Aa may offer qualities that do not exist elsewhere, like other long term health and longevity, good temperament, other qualities that we are losing. If we remove every single Aa dog and pass over them, we may lose more than simply reducing PRA carriers. Those Aa dogs may hold the keys to reducing incidence of autoimmune disease, less frequent leg breaks, better temperaments, other conformation qualities that are desired.
Answer: Unfortunately, we know there are still genes we have not yet identified for PRA, and it is still possible for a dog who has Normal results on this DNA test to develop another form of PRA.
Answer: YES YOU STILL NEED TO DO EYE EXAMS! Ideally every year. We still have other eye disorders that need to be checked for - vitreous degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma (not just PCAG), iris coloboma, retina and lens issues, etc."
